Do you have what it takes to be a Fight Night warrior? Fight Night is back - for our 12th year - on 23 May 2019. 18 fearless channel contenders will once again immerse themselves into the brutal world of boxing to raise money for their chosen charities.

Change is coming, as Microsoft is introducing new and extended support and service requirements for direct sellers. These new conditions will come at considerable cost to some partners - financially and in both time and manpower.

Download now to understand how the Microsoft CSP changes will impact your organisation.

To grow, to remain relevant to the customers, and to remain profitable, IT channels (in all their forms) will have to master a number of business model transformations in the cloud and digital transformation era. Read more to learn about the key transformations that IT channels will need to address, in order to bring new capabilities to customers and be successful in the future.

AMD is ready and willing

Vendor ups the ante in fight to win over businesses blighted by Intel's defective chip

AMD has vowed to get more aggressive in the market as it launches a campaign to woo channel partners affected by Intel's Sandy Bridge woes.

The Ready. Willing. And Stable. campaign aims to raise awareness of AMD's technologies and drive sales to channel partners and enthusiasts. The firm's channel marketing director, Tim Martin, said the Sandy Bridge episode has presented his firm with an opportunity.

"We are reaching out to the channel partners and saying: ‘whatever difficulties you are having, AMD is there, and we have solutions'," he said.

"I do not know if you would have seen this kind of reaction from AMD in the past, but we are becoming much more nimble, flexible and aggressive," he added.

AMD interim chief executive Thomas Seifert expected the vendor to post market share gains this year. "Of course [Sandy Bridge] is an opportunity," he said. "It will buy us goodwill and move momentum in our dir­ection."AMD has also deepened its relationship with system builder Viglen. Martin said the chip-maker will provide its Fusion APU for Viglen's education-focused PCs.

AMD is backing the marketing buzz with a UK cashback campaign. Customers buying a qualifying CPU and GPU before the end of March from eBuyer, CCL, Dabs or Novatech can claim back £20.

Kelly Coxon, purchasing manager for distributor Tar­get Components, said: "The Sandy Bridge debacle caused a great deal of chaos and confusion for Target and our resellers. Information and solutions were communicated so poorly, the channel is sure to have lost confidence, leaving the door wide open for AMD to take full advantage."